Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 20, before section 23, to insert the following new section:
“23.--(1) Not less than one year and every twelve months thereafter following the commencement of this Act, all public bodies shall prepare and submit a report to the Standards in Public Office Commission detailing the documents and activities undertaken pursuant to this Act, including, but not limited to--(a) any and all relevant guidelines developed,
(b) any and all information and awareness conducted with employees,
(c) any and all disclosures made to the public body pursuant to this legislation and the action taken,
(d) any other matters as shall be requested by the Standards in Public Office Commission.(2) Not more than eighteen months following the commencement of this Act and every twelve months thereafter, the Standards in Public Office Commission shall prepare a report for the Oireachtas that contains, inter alia--(a) detailed information on the reports made to it under subsection (1),
(b) its assessment of any systemic issues identified as arising from these reports, bearing in mind the aims and principles,
(c) its assessment of the quality of and implementation of guidelines and awareness raising in relation to the Act,
(d) its proposals for any necessary amendments to the legislation or requirements for further regulations, if any.(3) No information prepared and published in connection with this section shall contain information capable of identifying the person who made the protected disclosure.”.

Amendment No. 8 seeks an addition to the legislation. In light of the Minister's comments last week, we do not see this as an attempt to provide a monitor of those monitoring rather it is an effort to include in legislation a way to monitor complaints across the board so that any systemic issues within or across public services are identified and to ensure that whistleblowers are not being victimised. Furthermore, we believe this could significantly assist with the review of the legislation following the five year period, on which the Minister had a discussion earlier with Senator Thomas Byrne. I agree that in some ways the time period is important. However, also important is how the review will be conducted. If there were measures in place as proposed in the context of amendment No. 8 this would facilitate the collection of information over the five years on which the review could be based, as distinct from looking back over four or five years and trying to collect that information.

In reference to the OECD, international best practice outlines that steps should be taken to evaluate the effectiveness of whistleblower protection laws and policies. The legislation as drafted provides, by and large, for a five year review. The amendment suggests that systematically collecting data and information over a period of time is a means of evaluating the effectiveness of the whistleblowing mechanism and that an independent public body could ensure systematic data collection regarding the number of cases, etc.. We believe the amendment proposed is in keeping with that particular approach.